The Preserve, Wednesday evening

[dontvotemeout]

Jason had been feeling weird all week, but it was nothing compared to today. He hadn't been around people too much, but every time he talked, little things that he hadn't meant to say kept coming out. He was pretty sure it wasn't just him - the island did seem to love screwing with people in great big batches, after all - but avoiding people as much as he could still seemed like the wisest course of action. Even though it was nighttime, he decided to go for as long of a run as he could.

Yes, he'd already gone for a run this morning. He still had way too much energy to burn off.

[For one person in particular, but feel free to come across him if you'd like!]

Comments

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Don't say that!" Nico groaned, looking completely grossed out. "I don't want to end up diseased because Luke went for Percy. Why didn't he go for you? You're way better looking. No stupid gray hair or scar."

[dontvotemeout]

"You think I'm better looking than Percy?" Jason said, perking up a little. "You know we look the same, right?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"It helps that you're never a jerk. And you definitely work out more." Nico really wished he could add something about how it wasn't like he paid attention to these things, it was just that obvious, but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.

[dontvotemeout]

"I need to stay in shape, even if I'm not battling criminals every night here," Jason said, thinking he was being pretty suave until he blurted out, "I think you're better looking than Percy too. And Luke. Um, obviously."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"What?" Nico was kind of shocked, given Jason wasn't even goth or a big fan of death or something. "Uh, I mean, Luke'd kick your ass for saying that."

[dontvotemeout]

"What, like how dare I think someone is hotter than him?" Jason asked. "He doesn't seem like that big of a jackass. And you can't be surprised. You have to know you're hot, even if you're weird too."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Did you just use hot and weird together?" Nico had to snicker at how Jason said that.

[dontvotemeout]

"It's not bad weird," Jason said. "It's a cool weird."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Cool weird? That's not 'cause my hands are cold, is it?" Nico tried to joke, holding one up and waggling his fingers.

[dontvotemeout]

"I meant cool like awesome. Although your hands are kind of nice, because I run kind of hot." Jason put his hand back to his mouth, like that was going to help anything right now.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"That explains the shorts in near winter." Nico reached a cold hand to see if he couldn't encourage Jason's hand away from his mouth. "Makes you hot in more ways than one." Nico was tempted to open up the earth for that slip.

[dontvotemeout]

Jason stared at Nico, even as he let him take hold of his hand. "You think I'm hot? These past few days have seriously screwed with you, huh?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Like I needed these past few days," Nico muttered, not knowing what he'd intended to do with Jason's hand other than stop it from blocking his words.

[dontvotemeout]

On one hand, it was mean to ask questions when Nico couldn't seem to lie. On the other hand, Jason was really kind of curious now. The other other hand was still in Nico's possession, and that kind of spurred Jason on because he wasn't thinking very clearly either. "Did you think that before this week?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

It was a little cruel, but it wasn't like Nico was planning on changing his mind anytime soon. "Uh, yeah. Even weirder, huh?"

[dontvotemeout]

"Yeah, but only 'cause I don't think anyone's thought that about me before. I think you are too," Jason said, glad that he had their hands to look at instead of looking at Nico. "Since Homecoming, really."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

The longer their hands touched, the more Nico felt that spreading warmth through his chest. "Yeah? I almost went to your booth that day, but I worried about freaking you out."

[dontvotemeout]

Nico's hand was still nice and cold, but Jason could use the cooling off. "Luke came to my booth too, so it might not have been weirder than that. I don't think I would have minded."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Did you kiss Luke, too?" Really, it was like Luke should be a son of Aphrodite.

[dontvotemeout]

"Yeah, although now I'm wondering if he came up to my booth to see if he'd like kissing Percy," Jason said, making a face.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Like it'd be at all the same," Nico scoffed at that idea. "I mean, there's no comparing."

[dontvotemeout]

If Jason wasn't so worked up on hormones, he might not have asked, "Do you think Percy would be better? Or me?"

Okay, so he probably would have still asked, but he wouldn't have been smirking so much when he did.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

That unfortunately attractive smirk made it clear to Nico that Jason already knew what his honest answer would be so he didn't bother holding back his dorky smile. "Oh, definitely you. Don't make me imagine all the water involved with kissing Percy."

[dontvotemeout]

"Okay, I won't," Jason said, and really, the only thing that made any sense after that was to lean over and try to kiss Nico for real.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Any surprise Nico felt from Jason's move didn't last long. He was a demigod trained to react to sudden changes in battle and apparently that training kicked in when really hot boys leaned in to kiss him, allowing Nico to relax and kiss back.